About

Davida Siwisa James was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She grew up between Philly and New York City. Davida has also lived in Los Angeles, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. She spent approximately twenty years in L.A. and ten years in St. Thomas.

Davida has an English degree from UCLA and attended the Penn State Dickinson School of Law in Carlisle, Pennsylvania for a year and a half.

Her other publications include a previous memoir, “The South Africa of His Heart” (2007; iUniverse) that focused on her relationship with her South African expatriate husband and “The Commute” a short story in the Pushcart Prize-winning “The Caribbean Writer” (Vol. 14; literary journal). Her short story collection, “Life in Brief” is currently under revision, but will be back on sale soon. As a freelance journalist and public relations director, Davida has numerous published newspaper and magazine articles, opinion columns and business work product. She has been a freelance journalist for The Virgin Islands Daily News (a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper) and The Daily Press (California Mojave High Desert newspaper chain). Her body of creative writing includes several unpublished manuscripts and poems.

Davida boasts a combined eighteen-year career in arts management for the UCLA Center for the Performing Arts and the Reichhold Center for the Arts in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. She has also been a public relations director for the University of the Virgin Islands and a law firm administrator.

Davida is currently retired from UCLA, has a part-time freelance writing/editing business, and she is the founder and executive director of an nonprofit in the Mojave High Desert – Victor Valley Arts and Education Center (www.vicartsed.org).

She lives in the California Mojave High Desert with her husband, Robelto. Her son, David Hudson Obayuwana, is a screenwriter and actor in Los Angeles.